Hello fellow PSAudio forum peeps! I am in need of some general advice as to how to best treat my listening space on a pretty limited budget. I have been working with GIK on this project and they have made a number of suggestions, and I guess I’m just looking for verification before I spend my hard earned dollars.
I’ve read and absorbed (as much as I can) a lot of information, including this GREAT post here by another forum member. His room is MUCH bigger and he’s gone to fairly great lengths to address some of the more unique properties of the Magnepan speaker (dipoles). I get a bit lost in the weeds reading some of the more advanced acoustic theory from Art Noxon at ASC but otherwise I found this post VERY helpful.
I’ll try to keep this brief.
My room is small. Pretty much exactly 10 x 12 x 8. There is a window on the front wall and a door adjacent to the back wall. The only thing in this room right now is two listening chairs, a rug, and the speakers and other gear. The walls are bare, and are horsehair lathe & plaster.
I have a new pair of Magnepan 1.7x’s that I fell in love with when I heard them. They are positioned about 32" away from the front wall, 20" from the side walls, and are 48" apart. The tweeters are on the OUTSIDE edge of the panels, which are toed-in a bit so that the tweeter ribbons are aimed at the listening position.
My listening position is @ 24" from the back wall.
The sound is “good” but the room is doing some weird things and I KNOW it can sound better with some well-placed panels. I am new to this and lack the vocabulary and experience to describe how this room sounds. Certain frequencies really come forward and not in a good way.
Again, I’ve read a lot about this and get conflicting information about where best to start. I have a limited budget and want to make good initial decisions that will improve the sound and address some of the issues this room is presenting. I understand small rooms can be more challenging.
Some photos will help here I think!
The people at GIK have been very helpful and I think they make good products at a reasonable cost. They proposed the following design as a start:
This seems like a plausible first step…however I am wondering if I should prioritize addressing bass control in the corners? I’m also unclear on whether I should be focusing on absorption or diffusion, or a combination of both?
GIK offers a pretty wide selection. Some panels focus on absorption. Some focus on diffusion, and some are a hybrid. For example the 244 can be ordered with a scatter plate to provide diffusion. The Impression and Alpha panels have wooden surfaces with various patters in them to provide diffusion/scattering. You can do this with their corner tri-traps too! All of the various options can get a bit overwhelming.
Any advice on the best first step to make would be greatly appreciated.
